
20
SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON QUARTERLY
power of his oratory held the attention of all in the audience.
His hearers recognized the fact that he was no novice, but
was able to meet all classes with convincing arguments in
support of the doctrines he taught. Thus the apostle stood
undaunted, meeting his opposers on their own ground, match-
ing logic with logic, philosophy with philosophy, eloquence
with eloquence."—"The Acts of the Apostles," pages 235, 236.
•
3.
Areopagus was "a rocky eminence at Athens, near the
Acropolis, upon which a sovereign criminal court held its
sittings. The judges were called Areopagites, and through
a long period were greatly respected." ("Twentieth Cen-
tury Dictionary.")
4.
The word "superstitious" in this text seems an unfor-
tunate translation. The Revised Version gives "religious."
Conybeare and Howson translates the text, "I bear witness
to your carefulness in religion," and in a footnote adds, "The
mistranslation of this verse in the Authorized Version is much
to be regretted, because it entirely destroys the graceful
courtesy of Paul's opening address, and represents him as
beginning his speech by offending his audience."
5.
"The quotation [in this verse] is from Aratus, a Greek
poet, who was a native of Cilicia; a circumstance which
would, perhaps, account for St. Paul's familiarity with his
writings."—"Life and Epistles of the Apostle Paul," Cony-
beare and Howson, page 328, note.
6.
Hales, in his chronology, speaking concerning the dark-
ening of the sun at the cross, makes the following interest-
ing statement concerning Dionysius; assuming that it is the
same Dionysius: "This obscuration of the sun must have been
preternatural, in its extent, duration, and opposition of the
moon at full to the sun. It was observed at Heliopolis, in
Egypt, by Dionysius, the Areopagite, afterwards the illus-
trious convert of Paul at Athens (Acts 17: 34), who, in a
letter to the martyr Polycarp, describes his own and his
companion's — the sophist Apollophanes'— astonishment at
the phenomenon, when they saw the darkness commence at the
eastern limb of the sun, and proceed to the western, till the
whole was eclipsed; and then backward from the western to
the eastern, till his light was fully restored; which they at-
tributed to the miraculous passage of the moon across the
sun's disk. Apollophanes exclaimed, as if divining the cause,
`These, 0 good Dionysius, are the vicissitudes of divine
events!' Dionysius answered, 'Either the
Deity
suffers, or
He sympathizes with the
Sufferer.'
And that Sufferer, accord-
ing to tradition recorded by Michael Syncellus, of Jerusalem,
he declared to be 'the unknown God,' for whose sufferings all
nature was darkened and convulsed." ("Hales," volume 3,
page 230.)